cancel2 2022
Canceled
- Protestors put pressure on Government for referendum on widening access to pregnancy terminations
- It's been a divisive issue for decades - Catholic Ireland has some of the world's strictest laws on abortion
- Marches were organised in more than 20 cities worldwide by Irish expats in tandem with the Dublin event
Thousands of protestors marched in Dublin, and Irish expatriates joined in demonstrations around the world on Saturday, to put pressure on the Irish government to hold a referendum to repeal restrictive abortion laws.
Regulations in the once stridently Catholic Ireland are among the strictest in the world and next month Prime Minister Enda Kenny will call a citizens' assembly to advise the government on whether a vote should be held to boost access to abortion.
Demonstrators marched in the rain on government buildings from Dublin's main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street, bringing traffic to a standstill by the River Liffey as they chanted, beat drums and held placards saying 'My Body, My Choice'.
The rain-soaked mass demo in Dublin was a bid to get the Irish Government to repeal the eighth amendment to the constitution, which enforces strict limitations to a woman's right to an abortion. One placard read 'keep your rosaries off my ovaries,' highlighting the influence that the powerful Catholic church has historically wielded over the issue in Ireland
This bare-breasted and cloaked protester made her view plain. Marches in solidarity were held in cities around the world by Irish expats. Ireland has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world but a referendum could soon be held on the issue
'It's a woman's right to choose and it is ridiculous to say that anybody else, the state or the church, has to right to tell that woman what happens to her body,' said Sal Roche, a 42-year-old dance teacher at the march with her two-year-old son, Tommy.
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